Automotive industry will undergo major change in India. Regulation is going to play a huge role. Sometime back, we had BS3 migrating to BS4 and then to BS6. So BS6 is going to be the biggest thing that the automotive industry globally has seen and that will impact us largely.

What will your agenda comprise in 2020?

There will be huge focus on analytics, predictive analytics and customer experience because customers of 2020 will be very different from customers of 2017. Those customers won’t work with the processes of 2017. So we need to revamp our processes, systems, culture and the way we work with them, whether on dealerships, mobile or any other channel of interaction.

How will the rapid evolution of technology impact your industry in the year 2020?

Technology is changing at such a rapid pace that in today’s time, you can’t really make your technology strategies for long-term. It could be few months and suddenly you know that something else has hit you. That’s where the biggest challenge or opportunity for most of the IT teams and for us also is how are we nimble, responsive, sense everything that is going on and respond to that rather than getting into situations where we have to react. So we need to respond, be proactive and that’s the biggest challenge. From our team’s perspective, we need to ensure that our skill sets keep pace with that which could become a challenge. It’s not only the skill sets of our team but also skills sets of our ecosystem (vendors, consultants, etc.). They also need to ensure that they have the right skill sets. Availability of manpower could become another challenge.

What will the customers of 2020 be like?

The biggest difference that is coming in customers is a huge amount of individualism, which means organizations should not say, ‘We want to treat all people in the age of 20-25 years like this’ and instead say, ‘We want to treat each customer as an individual.’ That’s going to be the biggest challenge. That’s where predictive and all other analytics will come into play. So we need to ensure that each of these guys is treated as individuals and not as generic customers.

What are your personal goals for the year 2020?

CSR is an area where I play a decent role. I think over the next three years if I can contribute a lot to society both on a personal front and as an organizational representative heading the CSR, we can do lot of things, whether on road safety, environment or girl child and I will feel much more personally satisfied.